Roberto Duran Wife, Kids, Family, Net Worth, Wiki, Biography

Quick Facts

Roberto Duran Samaniego is a former professional boxer who is from Panama. He was born on the 16th of June 1951. His professional boxing career has spanned over a period of around 40 years from 1968-2001.

Roberto Duran Biography

Roberto’s father is from Arizona, United States but of Mexican descent. It is said that Duran grew up in the poorest parts of El Chorrillo, a place known as “The House of Stone” – La Casa de Piedra.

He started having an interest in sporting combat and began hanging out with boxers with a wealth of experience at the very tender age of 8 at a popular gymnasium named Neco de la Guardia. Roberto made his professional debut in 1968 at the very young age of 16. He is a four weight world champion having also remarkably held the various titles in the lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, and light middleweight.

He also goes further to cement his place as the undoubted lineal lightweight champion and also went one step forward by being the undisputed lineal welterweight champion. Roberto Duran also broke the record of longevity as he is the second boxer to have his career span well over five decades. The only other individual to reach this feat was Jack Johnson.

He had the nickname “Manos de Piedra” which means “Hands of stone” which he earned due to his versatile fighting style, in his hay days, Roberto Duran was one hell of a brawler, his vicious and tenacious fighting spirit made him feared beyond the ring. He was a pressure fighter and had incredible punching power. But his huge burgeoning career took a hit when he lost in 1980 in his “no mass” loss to rival Sugar Ray.

At the very formative stages of his career, Duran was lean and very hungry. In 1972, it took him an incredible 13-rounds fight with Scottish man, Ken Buchman to lift the WBA lightweight championship.  His first defeat came after 31 wins in a non-title light welterweight fight against Esteban de Jesus in November that year. That did not do absolutely anything to deter his spirit because after that he went on to another incredible 41 straight victories. He did move up a class weight and abdicated his belts in 1979. After this, Duran quickly proved his detractors wrong by handling bigger opponents with an incredible win over former champion Carlos Palomino.

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It was on the 20th of June, 1980 that Roberto Duran reached the absolute zenith of his career in what was called the “Brawl of Montreal” at the Olympic stadium where he absolutely destroyed the undefeated Sugar Ray Leonard. He retired early at the turn of the century and was honored by being elected into both the World and International Hall of Fame in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Duran’s Net Worth

Roberto stayed an incredible 50 years in boxing due to his pretty early start and his hard work and durability. So you would think that a boxer of his statue would have amassed enormous wealth. This was not as expected when he retired in 2001 after he recovered from a car accident in Argentina.

Over his 50 years career, he fought over 119 bouts and won 104 of them. At some point, Roberto also ventured into music. His life’s net worth is rounded up to a pretty decent fee of $3 million dollars. There is no doubt that he would have been worth much more if he hadn’t blown approximately $20 million dollars at the peak of his career on a lavish lifestyle.

His Family, Wife, and Kids

Roberto was born in Guararé, Panama to his mother Clara Samaniego and to his father Margarito Duran Sanchez who was stationed in Panama for the US army about the same time Roberto was born. Roberto and his family lived in abject poverty and had to do odd jobs like shining shoes and dancing on the street for money.

To the best of our knowledge, the former boxer has at least six children including Roberto Duran Jr, Victor Duran, and Robin Duran (his sons). There is also Dalia Duran who is probably the most famous of his daughters and, we can tell she has two sisters – Giovana Duran and Irichelle Duran. Even though several reports have specified that the man has a total of eight children, claiming he fathered other kids from an affair he had outside of his marriage, we haven’t been able to substantiate these claims.

Meanwhile, Roberto Duran Jr has been striving to make his own legacy in the boxing profession like his dad.

Duran’s marriage is such that has lasted the test of time and a marriage that showed even celebrities can make their marriage work and last. He is married to his longtime girlfriend and childhood sweetheart, Mia Felicidad Duran. This marriage has lasted over 40 years and it seems to be growing stronger and shows no signs of letting up.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.